The Role of Olive Tree Polyphenols in the Prevention of COVID-19: A Scoping Review, part 1.

Abstract

The global COVID-19 outbreak, started in December 2019, resulted in severe financial losses and extraordinary health crises. Finding a potent and secure medication candidate to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection and its symptoms is still an urgent global need. After reviewing previous studies, olive leaves, being rich in polyphenolic compounds (a large class of bioactive substances naturally found in plants), were proposed as a viable co-therapy supplement to treat and improve clinical symptoms in COVID-19 patients. It has long been known that olive tree polyphenols-such as oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol, verbascoside, as well as triterpenoids like maslinic, ursolic, and oleanolic acids-have anti-inflammatory and multitarget antiviral effects on several virus families, and they could be one of the reasons of the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet against COVID-19. Thus, olive tree poly-phenols were tested in silico and in vitro for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection, claiming that they have beneficial effects. Nevertheless, there is still a small number of research studies on this topic. The aim of this scoping review is to provide more information and offer an opinion on the feasibility of using olive tree polyphenols as a springboard for the creation of innovative natural remedies against this viral illness, ultimately planning future relevant studies.